Sex offender gets state prison for letting toddler wander

Pa. State Police, Pa. State Police

An Allentown man was sentenced to one to five years in a state prison Thursday for letting his two-year-old son wander outside on a cold night wearing only a T-shirt and diaper. Marc Crouthamel, 33, of Idaho St. was on probation for sharing child porn at the time of the crime and was not supposed to be supervising children. ///////// Photo is from Pa. State Police MeganÕs Law website http://www.pameganslaw.state.pa.us

An Allentown man was sentenced to one to five years in a state prison Thursday for letting his two-year-old son wander outside on a cold night wearing only a T-shirt and diaper. Marc Crouthamel, 33, of Idaho St. was on probation for sharing child porn at the time of the crime and was not supposed to be supervising children. ///////// Photo is from Pa. State Police MeganÕs Law website http://www.pameganslaw.state.pa.us (Pa. State Police, Pa. State Police)

An Allentown sex offender who was banned from supervising children when he let his 2-year-old son wander outside on a cold night was sentenced Thursday to one to five years in a state prison.

Marc Crouthamel, 33, of Idaho Street was on probation for sharing child pornography at the time of the crime. The child was wearing only a T-shirt and diaper when he was found.

"I'm very sorry that this happened. It was a lapse in judgment," Crouthamel told Lehigh County Judge Maria L. Dantos. "I'm just happy there was no permanent damage to my son."

Crouthamel pleaded guilty in December to child endangerment. He was arrested on April 17 after a contractor working near Crouthamel's home around 11 a.m. heard the boy crying for his mother in a nearby yard. It was 48 degrees outside at the time.

The child was taken to a hospital while detectives checked nearby homes looking for his parents. The door to Crouthamel's house was open. Officers went inside and found a 9-month-old baby lying on the living room floor and Crouthamel asleep in an upstairs bedroom.

He told officers that he had taken a sleeping pill and fallen asleep.

It's unknown how long the toddler was outside before he was found. Doctors told police that the child's diaper was heavily soiled and his body temperature had dropped to 88 degrees during the ordeal.

Crouthamel is a registered sex offender under Pennsylvania's Megan's Law. He pleaded guilty in 2011 to disseminating child pornography after police seized computers from his South Whitehall township home.

Crouthamel's attorney, Jacob Thielen, said his client regrets the incident and made an "error in judgment" by taking the pill when he was supposed to be caring for his children.

Dantos noted that Crouthamel, under the terms of his probation in the child porn case, was not supposed to have any unsupervised contact with children.

"Yet you were, and one of those children was roaming the streets with a body temperature 10 degrees below normal. How does that happen?" Dantos said.

In addition to prison time, Crouthamel must complete two years of probation. Dantos banned Crouthamel from being alone with any children during the sentence.